Trump’s ‘Tough Guy’ Foreign Policy Falls Flat with Russia and China
Now that Russia and China have jumped to the top of Donald Trump’s foreign policy agenda, how’s the president doing with Washington’s two most important relationships outside the Atlantic alliance? The crises in Syria and North Korea have suddenly complicated…
Trump Acts on Obama’s ‘Red Line’ by Launching Missiles at Syrian Targets
This PDF document is the original version, as filed, of the column posted on April 6. A week ago, administration officials said that ousting Syrian President Bashar al–Assad was no longer the U.S. priority. After Obama and then-Secretary of State…
Trump’s Climate Fail: Another Loss for American Leadership
President Trump put more than progress on climate change in jeopardy when he reversed the previous administration’s clean-energy policies on Tuesday. With a signature on an executive order, he put America’s global leadership more seriously at risk than at any…
Tillerson’s Asia Trip Could Signal the End US Soft Diplomacy
It was clear as soon as Rex Tillerson arrived in Tokyo late Wednesday that the new secretary of state’s first trip to Asia could turn out to be a mission impossible. In a six-day tour of three nations, the unproven…
Trump Has No South China Sea Strategy—and Needs One Fast
The South China Sea question is rolling toward the Trump White House like a long, low Pacific wave. Whenever it breaks, the president’s going to need a strategy he doesn’t seem to have yet. The strategy is just a piece…
North Korea’s Missile Test Leaves Trump with Three Options
You have to hand it to Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s unpredictable president: Launching a new ballistic missile just as President Trump and Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe were meeting in Washington couldn’t have been more provocative. Factor in the assassination of…
The Liberal, Postwar ‘Order’ Is Dying—and That’s a Good Thing
Decades of unchallenged pre-eminence have left Americans fearful of change but also greatly in need of it. Very curious to watch Donald Trump’s inauguration last week. These rituals are always heavy on signifiers and light on substance, as they are…
On Day One, Trump Faces Two Huge Foreign Policy Challenges
Barack Obama isn’t handing Donald Trump any portfolio of foreign-policy successes as he passes the baton the next president. Trump is about to step into a world that his peace-prize-winning predecessor has made measurably more unstable and dangerous than it…
Trump’s Job No. 1: Recoup the Jobs, Wages and Security Lost to Trade Deals
President-elect Trump’s choice of Robert Lighthizer as his special trade representative, announced Tuesday afternoon, completes the first string of the new administration’s trade team. So it’s time to draw a couple of clear conclusions. Conclusion No. 1: Trump is a…
Trump Will Be Steadier on China Than His Taiwan Call May Suggest
There’s only one smart way to take all the heavy breathing since Donald Trump’s 10-minute telephone conversation last Friday with Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s president. Ignore it: Most of what’s been ricocheting around the press last week misses the point by…
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